Three Laws to Protect Americans from Sexual Discrimination

Everyday, children in this country are bullied because a fellow student doesn't like that they may be gay. Too often these bullying tactics -- including several already this year -- result in suicide and the sad loss of life of a completely innocent victim.

In addition to biased-generated bullying done in our schools and playgrounds, too many children and adults are victims of serious hate crimes. They are beaten and brutalized not just because they are gay, but because of the color of their skin or their gender. With no law to prosecute violence based on bias, the federal government is limited in what it can do to punish these horrible perpetrators.

And everyday, hundreds of thousands of American workers are afraid to be themselves, to be proud of who they are in the workplace because they know their God-given natural sexuality could cause dismissal, demotion or other workplace discrimination.

For years, politicians in Congress have given us excuses. To the children who are being hurt or the workers who are afraid to show up to do the job they were hired to do, they can't afford your excuses anymore.

Nor can I.

There are three critically important pieces of legislation that should pass Congress and move to the president's desk immediately. You were elected on a promise to help people -- to make a difference in people's lives. Because discrimination is unacceptable, you should move forward now to pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act, the National Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The children and workers in this country need you to protect them on the playground and in the workplace -- to allow them to live their lives without fear of getting physically or emotionally hurt -- to allow them to make a living and pay taxes like any other American worker.

With strong Democratic Majorities in the House and Senate, the three proposed laws I've mentioned above should be passed easily -- before one more life is lost, before one more hard-working American unjustly loses his or her job.

And one more thing, you won't have done a complete job if you leave out transgendered Americans. They are people too who deserve all the same rights and protections afforded to any other American.

No more excuses. Get these laws passed now and show us that you are willing to fight for these very people who so desperately need your help.

Comments

[Busbydav]

Far more important than DADT or DOMA in my opinion.

[RS77]

If you were a gay man in the military you might think differently.

If you were a gay man in a loving monogamous relationship you might think differently.

[JusticeDemon]

DADT continues to spread the religion-spawned lie that LGBT Americans are inferior.

DOMA continues to spread the religion-spawned lie that LGBT Americans' relationships are inferior.

Both result in additional need for ENDA, Hate Crime Laws, bullying etc. Will eliminating them solve the problem? No, but it will take fuel out of the religious right-wings fire and THAT will have very real benefits.

[DallasMike]

Why did you not mention the "responsability" of the parents when it come to children being bullied?
Why does the Gov't ned to become some kind of suragate parent?

[llisa]

If you'd ever been a teacher, you would know that far too many parents do not take responsibility for raising their own children to be productive members of society. The school has to be granted the rights and responsibilities to take action when the parents won't.

[SonofLiberty1]

Mike,

Both parents and teachers are responsible...

I should know because I suffered greatly at the hands of teachers and classmates at my elementary school in Dallas, Texas after I had moved to Dallas from Boston during the summer of 1963.

I had to endure hellfire until thankfully we moved to Louisiana.

[jhamm1]

I'm so sorry about what happened to you.

Nowadays, I doubt that many teachers could get away with undertaking the bullying themselves.

But some continue to blame teachers for failing to intervene, in which case the strict constraints of School Boards, which forbid teachers from exercising a minimum of discipline let alone penalizing bullies, are largely to blame.

[BarryS]

they are not passed because they are low priority. protecting citizens is congress' lowest priority. money to bail out banks and pathetic car manufacturers and their ilk, and to give congresspeople pork so they can buy re-election are top priorities.

Then, there are those senators so busy with their mistresses they have no time to legislate. If they spent 1/4 the time on legislating that they do on press conferences proclaiming the sanctity of marriage and how their adultery doesn't count because they after all "believe" in its sanctity [rather than its application], these bills would get passed.

So, until you convince your collegues that the public good outweighs their self-interest, nothing will get done.

[RightWingMarine]

children should be protected from being emotionally hurt? This is getting ludicrous. So the child that cries at failing a test should be given a passing grade no matter what?
We already have laws that prohibit assault, other than creating thought crime what is the point of hate crime legislation? Why does prosecuting someone for hate crime deter other would-be assailants more than prosecuting that same person for assault?
Who gets to decide if something rises to the level of "hate" crime? Many rapists choose their victims based on the victims' gender, is that a hate crime? A robber may choose to rob disabled people because they are less able to defend themselves, is that a hate crime?

[HPdevotee]

Prosecuting a criminal with a 'hate-crime' modifier does lengthen the sentence and can deter some.
Rape as a hate-crime seems very reasonable to me and arguably should be included.
As for the robber and the disabled...that is a crime of opportunity . The robber is not targeting the disabled individual specifically because they hate them for their disability but is using their disability to gain an advantage in 'robbing' them.

[RightWingMarine]

I believe the law would prosecute those that target their victim because of real or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability... the robber that targets disabled people did so because they are easier to rob but this still fits the "hate" crime legislation because the vicitm was targetted because of their disability.

[SonofLiberty1]

Right Wing Marine...

I just "Flagged" you for good reason...

You can take your right wing attitude and march yourself right down to the shower and take a cold one...

Bullying is wrong period but I guess you never learned that...

I'm betting you were a bully yourself:(

[daffey]

Of course it was a good reason. He failed to conform to liberal orthodoxy. What better reason to flag someone and have their speech removed. That's what post-modern liberalism is all about!

[llisa]

You're not a parent, are you? Or a teacher?

Schools need to have some authority to deal with bullying which has gotten out of hand. And parents need to have some way to see that the school WILL deal with bullying when it occurs. If it is not in writing, many administrators will just shrug it off and the bullying will continue unabated.

[RightWingMarine]

schools already have rules against fighting and name calling. does it really need to become a federal matter when one kid calls another a name? If a student is assaulted and the school refuses to address the matter the parent can take the matter up with the police or file suit against the school. Both actions are likely to quickly bring about cooperation from the school for that issue and any issue that may occur in the future.